The development blog of the Indie game, Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox.

Please note that all screen shots displayed in this blog are works in progress and in no way represent the appearance of the final game. Check out the main site here.

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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Spiky Situations...

So traps are finally working! We decided that killing monsters, finding secrets and looting wasn't enough excitement for dungeons, so we put in traps! When a trap is nearby, your sixth sense will tell you by sounding a chime and lighting up the right-hand crystal down the bottom of the viewport (as you'll see in the video). From that point on, you need to tread very carefully, as traps could be ANYWHERE, and will release the moment you step on their square.

So yeah, kinda cool, hey! Turn the volume up for extra scariness! In the demo there will be 5 different trap types:

Spike traps - Plunge down vicious, rusty spikes into the player, taking out a chunk of damage, but then they retract back and the trap is re-set. This trap will go off every time the player steps in that square, unless it is deactivated somehow.

Rock slide - Dumps rubble and debris down onto the player, causing a large amount of damage, however, this trap can only go off once. But if it's spotted, the player can attempt to deactivate it before they step into the square.

Pit trap - The most deadly of the mechanical traps. This trap drops the player down into a spiked pit, killing them instantly. It can, however, be deactivated if spotted first.

Magical Fire trap - This trap is always visible and immolates the area around it with dragon fire when it goes off, and will go off every time it is walked through unless it is deactivated.

Magical Gas trap - This trap is always visible and releases poisonous gas into the area around it when it goes off, and will go off every time it is walked through unless it is deactivated.

So how do you spot traps? The player will be able to check the floors and ceilings and do a trap check. If the trap check says that it's safe, you can walk through, however, players with a weak level of skill may see a square as being trap-free when it's actually dangerous! So it is in the player's best interest to train that skill.Once a trap has been found, the player can attempt to deactivate it. However, just like trap detection, the player may THINK a trap has been deactivated when it actually is still active! So you had better train up!Of course, there is an easier and surer way to locate and deactivate traps and that is with scrolls of deactivate, which deactivate any traps in a 3x3 area around the player! Alternatively, there are also scrolls of seeing which will highlight traps that are near you. Both of these spells can also be learned and used, however, their effectiveness in that case will be determined by the player's level.

4 comments:

Haha those pit traps are BRUTAL. Scrolls are a good idea though, I like it. As for skills, do you get to choose them as you create a character or is it more free formed as in you can learn anything as long as you use it a lot?

Given the infinite nature of the game, rather than constantly boosting your skill points, you start out the same rank in everything, but as you use things they get better. However, it comes at a price... If you spend too much time fighting melee, your magical abilities will start to drop, and vice versa. So instead of adding points into different stats, you have to work and train hard to keep your character balanced in the way that you want them to be. It's a different way of doing it, but it's preferable to getting to level 500 and being a tank that can wipe out a whole army with his pinkie!

Oh and yes, thank you for the compliment on the Pit Trap :D it's definitely my favourite! Everyone we've gotten to test the game has jumped out of their skin and swore at the top of their lungs when it goes off!